Flappy OWL
by Uudam
Summary: Lucas and Echo try their hand at Vekta's newest and most frustrating game yet.


**I saw one of the Vekta News on the official KZ Facebook page featuring an "article" on Flappy OWL, so I made a silly drabble totally unlike the game's dark and serious tone.**

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**Flappy OWL**

Echo busied herself with cleaning out her sniper rifle. She looked over and noticed Lucas tapping his finger on the tablet he held. She raised an eyebrow. "Doesn't look like serious work, Kellan."

"No, just a game. It's called Flappy OWL."

"Flappy what?"

"Flappy OWL. You know, after the combat drone we Shadow Marshals use. This game's the latest craze. Players say it's one of the most addicting and frustrating games ever developed. And I'm inclined to agree."

Echo chuckled. "Whatever pisses off the Vektans makes the Helghast happy."

Lucas never took his eyes off the screen. "You're half-and-half. I don't think that saying would do you much favors."

He scrunched his brow in mixed irritation and concentration. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Echo lean over to watch him play. Only his thumb moved to tap on the screen. They watched the pixelated render of an OWL bob up and down to duck through electrifying pipes that obstructed its path.

A loud electrifying smack sounded from the tablet's speaker, signalling "game over" for him. Lucas looked up to see Echo raise an eyebrow.

"That's it?" she asked. "That's the game?"

"Yup. Avoid the petrusite. Tap to fly. That's all you have to do."

"Sounds stupid."

Lucas ignored her remark as he tapped "Start" to keep playing. "I'm a Shadow Marshal, for God's sake," he muttered. "I'm supposed to an elite soldier, the best among the VSA. I use the OWL all the time. How can I not get a higher score than 9?"

Echo rolled her eyes and blew air between her lips in playful disdain. "Move aside, amateur. I'm gonna destroy your best score."

The young Shadow Marshal regarded her with amusement as he let her take the tablet.

A smirk played on her scarred lips as she tapped a pale finger on the screen. "That's the only control, huh? Hmm, seems easy enough..."

She was a deadly and highly trained sniper. She knew how to be careful.

Lucas tried to hold back his laughter as Echo's confidence quickly boiled down to an ill-tempered scowl. She looked almost cute when she got angry. But he didn't dare say that out loud. He'd rather have her wrath centered on the game than on him. He already got a taste of that back on ISA Cassandra.

Echo blinked in angry disbelief. "What?" she exclaimed. "I died?"

Lucas leaned forward in interest. "What's your score? Is it higher than mine?"

Echo narrowed her vivid green eyes into a chilling glare, but made no reply.

He nudged her arm. "Come on, you said you were gonna 'destroy my score.'"

"Like hell I'm gonna tell you," she mumbled.

Lucas moved to get the tablet back, but Echo jerked it out of his reach. "Hold on. I need to try again."

The female Helghast agent promptly sat down and hunched over the tablet as she played. She turned down the volume to mute, but Lucas knew from the scowl on her face that she kept losing.

"I keep aiming too high and hitting the stupid conduits," she said irritably.

"Not as easy as it looks, huh?"

"Shut up, Kellan," she growled. "I'm trying to focus."

"Come on, Echo. It's been 5 minutes. Let it go, already."

But he could see that she was too far in, possibly beyond the point of no return. Suddenly she burst out in a tirade of colorful swear words as she lost yet again. Then she made to fling the tablet away.

Horrified, Lucas jumped forward to catch her arm. "Whoa! What the hell are you doing?"

Echo blinked and shot him a confused look for a moment. "Oh. Forgot it was yours." She shoved the tablet back into his hands. She lowered her head to let the red hood mask her sheepish embarrassment. "Don't let me get caught up in stuff like that. I take things too seriously. And I get really competitive."

Lucas stowed it away into his pant pocket and gave it a protective pat. "Yeah, I could see that. Jeez, Echo. This isn't really mine, you know. You almost destroyed VSA property...I'd have to pay dearly for a replacement."

"Your loss, not mine. You know, there could be worse games to get into."

"Like drone fighting?"

"Yeah. Popular with kids and teens, I heard." Echo shook her head. "Unfortunately, I can only agree with the news that it started from the slums of New Helghan. It's a sport for reckless idiots. Besides, where's the fun in letting drones do all the fighting?"

"You'd rather beat someone up in a fight? With your bare fists?"

"Of course. It's more honorable and satisfying that way. Much better than picking your fights and hiding behind a remote."

"You have a point." Lucas thought of what the two of them would have to do next. "Stopping Massar might just be easier than getting a high score on Flappy OWL."

Echo sighed as she shouldered her rifle. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but you might be right. I bet that game's rigged. I refuse to believe that a couple of elite soldiers like us had our asses handed to something like that. It's humiliating."

As they walked down the hall together, Lucas pulled up his tablet to turn it back on. Echo shot him a questioning glance.

"What are you doing?"

"Getting rid of the game to put my mind at ease."

"Good idea."

When Lucas opened up the online store to uninstall the game, he was in for a little surprise.

"Hey, Echo."

"What?"

"Did you know there's a Helghast knock-off for Flappy OWL?"

"Let me guess. Flappy ATAC?" When Lucas nodded, Echo groaned and shook her head. "As if the Helghast people need more things to piss them off."

Lucas winced at the thought of tall, strong, ill-tempered Helghast soldiers playing Flappy ATAC, and later taking out their anger in bursts of gun-toting, frag-throwing rage. It made for quite a frightening image.


End file.
